Prosecutors say not enough evidence to convict 3 men of murder in Hardeeville man’s death
Prosecutors dismissed murder charges Thursday against three men accused of killing a 20-year-old in Hardeeville in 2018, citing insufficient evidence brought by police.
Assistant Solicitor Trasi Campbell, with the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, returned the case to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office for “further investigation” into the killing of Lamann Alston, 20, of Hardeeville, according to court documents dated Friday.
The charges were not outright dismissed, however, and they could be brought back by law enforcement should more evidence come to light, according to Solicitor’s Office spokesperson Jeff Kidd.
“It is now an active investigation. I can’t say anything more,” said Chief Deputy Jeff Crosby with the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, reached by phone Friday.
Crosby stressed that the original investigation was done by the previous administration under Jasper County Sheriff Chris Malphrus. The current sheriff is Donald Hipp.
What happened to Alston?
On March 1, 2018, a shooting occurred on Church Road in Hardeeville, near U.S. 321 and the railroad tracks, according to previous reporting in the Island Packet. Alston was found with two gunshot wounds and was rushed to Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah. He later died.
Investigators with the Sheriff’s Office would later charge three teenagers with Alston’s murder.
Shyheim Shamar Chisolm and Julian Juawan Jackson, both of Hardeeville, and Tyreek Lester, of Savannah, were each charged with one count of murder and one count of possession of a weapon in commission of a violent crime.
All three were 18 at the time they were charged. Chisolm was arrested while he was in class at a Jasper County alternative school program, Sheriff Malphrus previously said.
On Friday morning, a reporter left messages for public defenders Patrick Hall, representing Chisolm, and Carolyn Carmody, representing Jackson.
Fred Kuhn, of Moss & Kuhn in Beaufort, is representing Lester and declined to comment.
It’s not clear from court records whether Chisolm has been at the Jasper County Detention Center since his 2018 arrest. A reporter left a message for jail Director Arthur Benjamin.
Lester has been out on bond since 2019 and Jackson since 2020.
When multiple people are charged with the murder of one person in South Carolina, it’s often part of the “hand-of-one, hand-of-all” theory, or accomplice liability.
According to an article from the Appeal on South Carolina’s version of this, it “stipulate(s) that if a murder occurs during the commission of a felony, like a robbery, anyone who participated in the felony can be charged with murder.”
It’s unclear which man was accused of shooting Alston or a motive, although all three were charged. The Sheriff’s Office on Friday had not yet released the original warrants in the case.
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 2:47 PM.
